North Coast Electric Company

I had the opportunity to attend the annual lighting extravaganza called Lightfair a couple weeks ago.
It was literally "eye opening." I can't recall ever seeing the light in quite such spectacular fashion. As expected...the star of the show was LED.

After perusing several booths I realized I was beginning to see a pattern...LED light sources being adapted to almost every conceivable fixture type. It became quite obvious that the momentum to make LED become the predominant light source of the future has achieved critical mass. As the innovations continue to expand and the cost begins to edge down I think the market will see a rapidly growing acceptance (in the form of orders and installations) for LED. Cost-effectiveness seems to me to be the most resilient barrier to widespread adaptation. One comment I heard repeatedly was "LED is the best thing that ever happened to induction."...meaning the cost of LED is making induction look attractive.

Perhaps the most interesting booth I visited was Traxon Technologies. They are an Osram company that does some amazing applications with LED. My favorite was LED light points embedded in glass that looked like they were floating in the air and sparkled like diamonds. Traxon has even made a light show out of the blades on a windmill using LEDs! You can see some of their projects at their web site here.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the new possibilties LED and the other technologies it inspires bring to light!

Tom Woltjer, Energy Solutions Manager